Reg Friesen Award for Student Papers at Chemed Sessions

Chemical Education Division

Reg Friesen Award

for Student Papers in Chemical Education Sessions

Reginald Friesen, MCIC

1937 - 1998

In 1996, the Chemical Education Division implemented a new award to encourage student participation in the education sessions at annual conferences. We now offer $350 and $150 awards each year to the best two papers presented by a graduate or undergraduate student at the education sessions at the annual CSC and CSChE conferences. The award guidelines encourage students to present papers of general interest concerning:

Critical evaluations of their educational experiences
Innovative learning/teaching strategies and materials
Other topics that address chemical education.

If you are an undergraduate or graduate teaching assistant, or would like to tell others about innovations you've carried out or experienced in the chemistry classroom, consider giving a paper in a Chemical Education Session!

Visit the CSC or CSChE Conference sites to find out more details about upcoming competitions.

In 1999, the ChemEd Division named this award in honour of Reg Friesen, a long-standing member of the Canadian Chemical Education community, who died on September 17, 1998. Reg was a faculty member in the Chemistry Department at the University of Waterloo from 1959 - 1996. His reputation spread across North America and beyond for his work in chemical education: as founding editor of CHEM 13 NEWS; as co-organizer of the first five Chem Ed conferences at Waterloo; as the initiator and organizer of the CHEM 13 NEWS Examination and Avogadro High School Chemistry Examination; and much more. A highlight of his career was his appointment as General Chair of the 15th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, the conference taking place in Waterloo shortly before his death.

In 2002 this award was given at the Vancouver CSC Chemical Education Program to graduate student Catherine Edgar from McGill University (for the second year in a row!) for her 1st place paper "Getting Rid of the Gag Reflex," and to undergraduate student M. Thompson from Trent University for the 2nd place paper "Determination of the Effective Force Constant for Stretching Modes of Organic Molecules."

For more information, contact
Kathy Darvesh Chair CED.